


Operation Hydration

by thewesterndoor



Series: Strange Neighbours [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Masturbation in Shower, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Oblivious Shiro (Voltron), thirst traps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 13:50:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17002857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewesterndoor/pseuds/thewesterndoor
Summary: All Pidge wanted was to pass Organic Chem but somehow she's found herself an unwilling conspirator in a plot to get two of the most oblivious idiots together.Or the fic where the gang tricks Keith and Shiro into a series of ridiculous thirst traps in a (misguided) attempt to make them get together.





	Operation Hydration

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to nekoshka who helped edit this and urged me to post it.
> 
> I'm still kind of processing everything that happened in s8 (wrote this before s7 came out), but in the meantime I thought I would share this.

“You can’t sit there.”

Pidge glanced up from the notebook on the coffee table in front of her, pushing her glasses back up her nose.  She glared at the lanky guy who was standing hands on hips, looking down at her.

“I’m sorry,” Pidge grumbled, “but who the hell are you?”

Expression changing from a dumb smirk to bewildered indignation, the guy threw his hands up in the air.

“This is  _ my  _ apartment! I should be the one to ask  _ you _ that!”

A plate of cookies slid onto the scarred tabletop, the aroma of vanilla and chocolate wafting up, before the ancient couch springs creaked and Hunk dropped into a seat.

“Lance,” Hunk warned, “be nice.  Pidge is a friend—and if I have a hope of passing Organic Chem, I need you not to scare her off before we’ve had a chance to study.”

A second later, Hunk’s soft brown eyes landed on Pidge and she saw him wince before he gave her an apologetic smile.

“He is right though,” Hunk said, casting furtive looks towards the door.

Pidge couldn’t help but notice that neither of the boys could go more than a few seconds without their attention straying like they were expecting someone.

With a huff, Pidge slid over to the next seat on the couch.

“Better?”

Hunk nodded and smiled gratefully.  At least he had the decency to blush—his roommate had just wandered over towards the fridge.

“Thanks.  It’s just…” Again Hunk glanced over towards the door.  “That’s our roommate’s spot. Keith’s kind of intense—“

“—That’s an understatement—“ chipped in Lance.

“He’s kind of intense,” Hunk continued, frowning at Lance.  “And he should be home any minute. It’s just sort of easier if…”

He shrugged his large shoulders.

“Is there any particular reason that needs to be his seat?” Pidge said, wondering what exactly she had wandered into.

This time both boys blushed.

“To be honest, we don’t really know.  We were going to ask him, but then he was kind of…scary?…and it’s just been long enough now that…well, you’ll see.”

Lance had wandered back from the small kitchen with a can of pop in his hand.  He dropped into the seat next to Hunk.

“Prepare yourself for the mystery that is Keith,” Lance said with a wave of his can, spilling pop on his shirt.

“Mystery?” Pidge asked hesitantly.

She was suddenly aware of the fact that she had only known Hunk since the start of the term in September.  In all the classes they had shared, he’d always seemed like a really nice guy—who didn’t like the person who showed up to study group with fresh baking?—but maybe that was all a front.

Forcing herself to push aside visions of her ending up a grisly story for a  _ Buzzfeed Unsolved _ episode, Pidge looked back down at her notebook.  How did you even begin to weigh the possibility of being murdered with passing Organic Chem?  There was only a week until the second midterm, and she didn’t have time to find a new study buddy, but still... _ murdered _ , or maybe skinned... At least if things got too weird her brother lived in the building next door.

Lance shoved almost a whole cookie into his mouth, and mumbled around the mouthful, “Yeah.  Neither of us actually know what he’s studying.”

“What?”

Hunk nodded.

“But…” Pidge couldn’t even find the words.

“He was the one that had the lease first.  Lance and I were looking for a place and found his ad on…”

_ Don’t say Craigslist _ , Pidge thought.

“…on a bulletin board, and we figured why not?  I mean, it’s a good location, and the building is pretty nice.”

“So the two of you moved in with a complete stranger and never actually bothered to get to know anything about him?”

“Hey! It’s not like we didn’t try,” Lance said, leaning forward to grab another cookie.  “He’s a total hothead. You should have seen him when we tried to discuss the bedroom arrangements and why I should be the one to have a bedroom to myself.  There’s just some battles not worth having.”

Pidge sank back into the couch, just trying to process it all.  She was about to ask what they meant by ‘sleeping arrangements’ when she heard the front door open.

She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but the person who walked in certainly wasn’t it.  He was only barely taller than Lance, and perhaps a little broader in the chest, but still rangy and lean.  His hair was was dark and messy, and she could see that he had pulled it into a short scruffy ponytail in the back.  From the carton of beer that he cradled under one arm, Pidge had to assume that he was at least twenty one, but she would be surprised if he was much older.

When he caught sight of her, Pidge lifted one hand into a half wave.

“Hi,” she chirped, “You’re Keith?”

His nod was sharp and his gaze watchful.

“I’m Katie—though everyone just calls me Pidge,” she continued.

Keith kicked off a pair motorcycle boots and walked straight over to the couch—to his spot—and sat down. A moment later he pulled out one of the beers from the carton, setting the rest onto the coffee table before twisting off the cap.  Pidge couldn’t help but notice that through all of that, his gaze had stayed locked on the view outside the window.

Turning to Hunk, she lifted one eyebrow and jerked her chin towards the window, but she was just met with a look of confusion.

Pidge had to take a deep breath and count to ten to keep herself from calling them all idiots.  Whether they were too scared, or too stupid, to realize it, Keith’s seat seemed to simply be a matter of him getting a good view of whatever was outside.  But what that was, she couldn’t figure out—just like her brother’s building in the same complex, the window looked out across an alley and onto the apartments in the building opposite.

Sometimes when she would hang out with Matt they would turn off the lights in the living room and go full  _ Rear Window _ , creeping on any of the neighbours that were too stupid to close their blinds, and coming up with elaborate stories.

Trying to be as subtle as possible, Pidge tried to crane her neck to get a view of whatever Keith might be seeing, but all she could see was an expanse of brick and the edge of windows.

“Where’s your bathroom?” Pidge asked.

“Down the hall, first door on the left,” Hunk said.

Pidge stood up with an apologetic smile, stepping over Keith’s legs to get between the couch and the coffee table.  As she went past him she took a quick look out the window.

There were three things that registered.

One: she could see straight into her brother’s apartment from that spot. She could tell it was Matt’s apartment because of the gallery wall of fractal art  _ she  _ had helped him put up.

Two: Matt’s roommate Shiro was standing almost dead centre in the window, having an animated discussion with someone just out of view.

And three: Pidge couldn’t be certain, but she thought that she might have heard the softest sigh escape Keith as he tried to look around her.

_ Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit _

Hunk and Lance’s roommate—the one they apparently lived in fear of—was creeping on Shiro. Did he have a  _ crush _ on Shiro?

What was she going to do with this knowledge?

For a start, she decided, she was going to text Matt and tell him to start keeping his damn curtains closed.

***

After her discovery, Pidge had little hope of concentrating on Organic Chem.  Instead she just made her excuses, feigning an urgent text from her parents, and snuck out.

She raced down the stairs, and was halfway to the entrance of Matt’s building when she realized that was exactly where she couldn’t go.  The view had mostly been of a particular slice of the sitting room, but she wasn’t in the mood to risk being caught.

Instead she pulled out her phone to text her brother.

_ Meet me at Coffee Now ASAP. URGENT _

Pocketing her phone, she darted across the broad street to the strip mall and into the coffee shop.  It was a lot more bougie than Pidge’s usual haunts—the sort of place that played light jazz and only served pastries that had fancy French names—but it was close and it had caffeine.

_ Ordering now—what do you want? _ She texted Matt.

He was quick to reply.

_ Americano.  Will b there soon. Waiting on Shiro. _

_ No.  Just us. Shiro can’t come. _

It was only after she had panicked and just started typing that Pidge realized how that might sound.

_ Rude,  _ was Matt’s reply followed by,  _ Ok. _

She tried to take a steadying breath, mustering up a pained smile for the barista behind the counter. Quickly, she ordered and took the drinks to a table near the back.

It didn’t take long before Matt burst through the door, his face red and hair more mussed than usual.  His eyes darted around Coffee Now until they landed on her. He marched over, sliding into the seat opposite.

“What’s wrong?” Matt said, jumping straight in as he looked her over. “Is it mom? Or dad? Are you okay?”

Okay, so maybe she shouldn’t have used the word ‘urgent’, she realized belatedly.

Trying to push aside her guilt, Pidge pulled off her glasses and started to used the hem of her shirt to clean them.  Instantly the world around her was reduced to blurry shapes and colours. Right now that felt like what she needed.

“You guys have neighbours who can totally see into your apartment, and I’m pretty sure that one of them is kind of super into Shiro.” All of that came out in one long rush, and when she was done she had to pause to breathe.

Matt just sat there quietly for a second, his gaze thoughtful, before he shrugged.

“Was that your emergency?”

“You heard me, right? I was studying with a classmate in the building that backs onto yours, and this guy was totally checking Shiro out,” Pidge said.

“Okay.” Again Matt shrugged.

“But apparently he does this a lot,” Pidge continued, her voice getting louder as she tried to make her brother understand.  “The other two idiots had apparently never realized it, but they have this whole thing where he only sits in the spot on the couch where you you can see into your place.  And the way he was looking at Shiro…Aren’t you worried about some creeper watching you guys through your window?”

“I mean,” Matt said slowly, his tone thoughtful, “ _ We _ do that all the time.  You even have a name for it—back window?”

“ _ Rear Window, _ Matt.  It’s Rear Window, from the Hitchcock movie,” she shoved her glasses back onto her face to glare at him.

“Right, yeah, that.”

“This is different,” Pidge said, slapping her hand down onto the table.  The drinks sloshed dangerously at the movement.

Matt just lifted his cup to his lips, taking a sip of his coffee; Pidge sort of wished he would  choke on it.

“So, this guy who’s been checking Shiro out,” Matt said, “Is he cute?”

“What?” Pidge screeched before she hunched down in shame, furtively looking around.  Mercifully, the coffee shop was practically empty and it was only the barista behind the counter who was shooting concerned looks in their direction.

“Shiro’s kind of been in a bit of a slump.  He’s pining after some mechanic, and there’s only so many times he can take his car in to get looked at.  Maybe we should let Shiro know—“

“You don’t get it.  This guy is…yeah, I guess he’s cute if you like sullen, but he has his roommates terrified to even ask him what his major is. We’ve got to protect Shiro!”

Matt had the audacity to crumple forward onto the table, his shoulders shaking.  When he pushed himself up, he had tears in his eyes.

“Pidge, I don’t think he’d appreciate you saying that.  Shiro’s an adult—he doesn’t need our protection.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Pidge knew that she probably looked like a sulky brat, but she couldn’t get over her brother’s blasé attitude.  She just might have to steal the curtains to his bedroom next time she was over and see if he still felt that way.

***

A couple of weeks later and Pidge had decided to forgive her brother.  Well, not so much forgive as ignore his shitty attitude for an evening…so she could use his tv and eat whatever he had in the fridge.

Her Organic Chem midterm had taken its toll, and yes, she could have gone to the Dining Hall for food—with the amount she’d had to pay for her meal plan she really should have been eating there—but Pidge needed  _ real _ food, not institutional goop.  She needed to bury her feelings under a mountain of whatever looked tastiest in Matt’s fridge.

“Hey guys, hope you’re prepared to feed me… Shiro!”

Pidge just stared, still standing in the doorway, as Shiro dropped down from where he had been doing pull-ups in front of the window.

“Oh, hey, Pidge!” Shiro said, an easy smile spreading across his face.

After years of knowing Shiro, Pidge was mostly immune to his charm, but even she was a little blindsided by the double assault of that smile and the broad chest on display.

“God Shiro, put on a shirt,” Pidge grumbled, closing the door a little more forcefully than was strictly needed.

“I’ll be finished in just a second and then you and Matt can hang out.”

Shiro reached back up to the bar that had been mounted just in front of the window and started his pull-ups again.

He may have been built like the broadside of a barn, but there was still more than enough room for Pidge to see the window.  The _ curtainless _ window.

Whirling around, she saw Matt draped across the couch with a paperback in front of him.  Pidge tried to storm over as discreetly as she could, then slapped the book out of his hands.

“What?” Matt said, blinking up at her.

“Don’t give me that,” she hissed with a furtive glance at Shiro.  He, however, was entirely focussed on his workout. “What the hell is that.  Does Shiro even know that he’s putting on a show for Hunk’s roommate?”

Matt couldn’t even so much as muster up a look of guilt.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Matt said with a smirk before he retrieved his paperback and flipped back to his spot.

Pidge shoved Matt’s legs out of the way and sat down on the couch.  Desperately, she pulled her phone out and tried to pay attention to the group chat for study group, but she couldn’t quite look away from Shiro.  How could anyone not watch when there was that much muscle on display? A year out of a car accident that had left his body scarred and his right arm missing from just above the elbow, and Shiro still managed to look like the literal embodiment of a god.  She felt a pang of sympathy for Keith.

Still, something had to be done.

Opening up a new message thread, Pidge’s fingers worked quickly.

_ You know that your roommate sits there so he can creep on my brother’s apartment.  I think he has a thing for Matt’s roommate. _

Hunk’s reply was almost immediate.

**_Hi Pidge! How did the midterm go? It was brutal right?_ **

There was a short pause as Pidge stared incredulously at the text bubble—how could Hunk be  _ so nice? _ —and then she could see that he was typing again.

**_Lance wants to know if his roommate is single._ **

_ How are all the men in my life total idiots? _ Pidge wondered as she tried not to grind her teeth into dust.

Before she could type out an appropriately scathing reply, another message appeared.

**_This is Lance—not asking for me.  Think Keith might be easier if he got laid._ **

**_Wait…is the dude working out the roommate? Hot damn. Maybe I want his number._ **

_ No one is getting Shiro’s number.  Just thought you guys would like to know why you’ve been letting him sit in that spot.  For almost three months. _

**_But really…is he single? Because if Keith got a boyfriend maybe he’d actually leave the apartment and then we’d have a chance to afhopgnsidsh_ **

**_Sorry.  I’m back.  Hunk. It’s me. I had to fight Lance to get my phone back.  I think we might have upset Keith. I hope he doesn’t murder us tonight._ **

Pidge rolled her eyes.

“Something going on there, Pidge?”

She jerked upright as she realized that Shiro had finished his workout and had wandered over.

“Yeah, just study group stuff.” 

Her tone may have been nonchalant, but her fingers fumbled as she tried to flip the cover closed on her phone case.

There was the ding of a message alert. Followed by another.  And another. And another.

Shiro lifted an eyebrow, chin jerking in the direction of the phone.

“Aren’t you going to get that?”

“Uh, no?”

He just lifted one muscled shoulder and laughed.

“Okay, enjoy your sibling time.  Time for me to do some grading.”

“But, it’s a Friday night,” Pidge stuttered.  She looked over to Matt for help.

Her brother didn’t even bother to look up.

“Midterm season,” Shiro said.

Pidge wasn’t sure, but she thought she might have also heard him mutter, “Not like I have anywhere else to be.”

She watched him walk out of the room, dumbfounded.  Only after she heard the click of his door closing did she scoot around so that she was sitting sideways on the couch facing Matt.  When he still continued to read, she shoved him with her foot. Hard.

“What’s wrong with you?” he said, finally putting the book down on his chest.

“What’s wrong with  _ me _ ?  What’s wrong with  _ Shiro? _ ”

Matt shrugged, but his eyes narrowed and his lips went tight.

“I  _ told you _ .  He’s been kind of…down.  I think he’s still having bad days from the accident, and he had to do all that catch-up from assignments, and he was really hung up on that mechanic…” Matt tugged at his bangs and he sighed. “I thought that if I could get Shiro to do some thirst traps maybe his mysterious admirer would make a move.”

Closing her eyes, Pidge leaned forward to press her forehead against her knees.  She wasn’t really contemplating this, was she?

Apparently she was.

She opened her messages back up and started typing.

***

The first official meeting of Operation Roommates went about as well as Pidge had expected, in that she had expected it to be a mess.  She, Matt, Lance, and Hunk had already been at Coffee Now for the better part of an hour, and the only thing they had accomplished was to agree that they needed a better name for their group.

Trying to ignore the latest suggestion—courtesy of Lance— that they lure Keith and Shiro somewhere and put them in some sort of danger, Pidge glared into the inky depths of her drink.

“Can we please have a suggestion that’s not creepy?  _ Please _ ?” Pidge grumbled.

“You know that this whole thing is a little…’creepy’,” said the barista, who was gathering up plates and cups from the next table.

Trying to think back through everything that had been said since they’d arrived, Pidge wondered exactly how much had been overheard.  Was it possible to die of mortification?

Lance apparently had zero embarrassment; he just leaned forward, his elbow dropping to the table, and rested his head on his hand as he flashed the barista a smile.  Pidge couldn’t help her snort when she saw the barista’s pained smile in return.

“What would you suggest…?” Lance purred.

“Allura.” She jerked her full hands in the direction of the name tag pinned to her apron and rolled her eyes.

“How would you suggest we get our roommates to meet, Allura?”

Allura’s blue eyes were unyielding as she said, “Maybe just get them to have a conversation—or just leave the two of them alone.”

It was almost fascinating, in the way of Shark Week specials, to watch Lance continue to try with Allura.  Pidge wondered if someone should tell him that he was never going to have a chance; right now, she really wanted that person to be her.

“I don’t think you understand,” Lance said, his smile just increasing, “Our roommate barely talks to  _ us _ . There’s no way we can just…get him to talk to a stranger.”

“Uh huh. And you think it’s a good idea for  _ you _ to find a romantic partner for this roommate that won’t talk to you? Good luck with that.”

Allura swept off back behind the counter with her armful of dishes.

“Could she be right?” Pidge said, turning back to the boys.  “Maybe it’s as simple as you guys throw a party and we bring Shiro with us.  See what happens.”

“First paragraph of our roommate agreement: no parties,” Hunk said with a watchful gaze on Lance.

“But you’re college students?  You’re supposed to be going throwing parties you regret,” Matt said.

“Not when you live with Keith,” Lance grumbled, arms crossing over his chest.

Even Hunk looked a little forlorn.

“Shiro wouldn’t have gone to a party anyways,” Matt said.

The four sat in a despondent silence.  Occasionally someone would make a noise like they were about to speak and the others would look up expectantly—hopefully—but it would usually be followed by a muttered, “Never mind.”

Finally she decided to just call it.  She had Latin I in twenty minutes, and they were clearly never going to make this work.  It was the stars telling them that they should just give up—leave Keith to his voyeurism, and maybe get Shiro a puppy or something.

Her chair screeched as she pushed it back and stood up.  The others started to follow suit until it was just Lance sitting at the table.

“What if we’re just being too…cerebral for this?”

“Lance, do you actually know what ‘cerebral’ means?” Pidge replied.

He didn’t bother to feign a hurt look, instead just lounging back in his chair, one arm draping over the back and his smile going smug.

“It means that we need to stop trying to be so brainy about this, and maybe trust in good old Mother Nature.  We know that Keith is already watching out for the Dreamboat—“

“His name is Shiro.”

“Whatever.  So, Keith is already watching.  You two get  _ Shiro _ to put on a bit of a show, and we’ll make sure that Keith is actually there to watch it.  And, if you can find a way to get Muscles to look out the window, we can try to make sure there’s something for him to see.”  Lance punctuated his words with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“I don’t know,” Hunk sighed.  “What are we gonna get them to do?”

Lance just waved his hand through the air.

“How hard can it be?  I bet I can Google that shit…here.”  With his tongue poking out between his teeth, Lance started typing into his phone. Almost instantly a deep flush rose up his neck and into his cheeks, and Lance slammed his phone face down on the table.  “Never mind. Don’t worry about that. We’ll just…we’ll figure it out on our own.”

“You know,” Pidge sang out, trying to bite back her smile, “Some data mining company now has that search that you just made.”  Her accompanying laugh may have been a bit cruel.

It was Matt who had to pull them back on topic.

“Failing anything better, we’ll go with Lance’s plan for now.”

***

“Shiro! Help! We need you…”

Pidge glared at her brother as she tried to figure out what else she could yell through the apartment that would get Shiro hustling to the living room.  There had been an extended argument over which of them should do the yelling, and it was Pidge who ended up as the lure for the thirst trap they were trying to stage.

She heard the sound of the shower being turned off, and then the heavy thuds of footsteps as Shiro ran towards them.

“Are you guys okay? What’s happening?”

There was just enough time for Pidge to text  _ Now _ to the group chat before they were joined by the man of the hour himself.  Water still trailed down his neck and torso, and the towel wrapped around his waist was covering surprisingly little.  Maybe not so surprising—Matt  _ had _ swapped out their usual oversized bath sheets for something that looked like a glorified hand towel.  The two ends  _ just about _ met where Shiro was holding it closed, but as he moved there were flashes of thigh on display.

“Pidge? I heard you call out?” Shiro said, his gaze sweeping around the living room.

Pidge decided that there would definitely be a special place in hell for Matt at that moment—and that special place was going to be Christmas with the family; this year it would be Matt who had to sit at the small table with all of the ankle-biting cousins.

“Yeah! Sorry! Were you in the shower? We just need you to settle a debate,” she said.

Shiro, pathologically nice as he was, just stared at her, looking like he  _ wanted _ to say something before he gave her a tight smile.

“Sure, what is it?”

_ Crap _ .  Neither had thought this far ahead in their plan.

“Uh, Matt’s trying to tell me that Stargate Universe is the best in the franchise, but obviously we all know that’s total garbage.  It’s Atlantis, Sg-1, and then—if you have to include it in the ranking—Universe.”

Shiro’s smile became even more brittle.

“You both know that I’m a Battlestar Galactica fan,” he said before he shuffled out.

No sooner had Shiro left than Pidge heard the chime of her phone. Hunk and Lance were flooding the group chat with a series of messages.

**_Keith definitely saw that.  I think I heard him whimper.  Just wandered off in a daze to his bedroom_ ** , Hunk had written.

**Music on so I think we know what that means** **_._ **

**It means he’s definitely jerking it in there.**

Pidge started typing, hoping that she could stem the flood of speculation.

_ I need you to stop.  Now. _

**Hey, just thought you’d want to know that was mission accomplished.  Good job team!**

_ That’s not “mission accomplished”.  The goal here is to get them to meet.  NOT give them stuff to masturbate to. _

Pidge looked up and glared out through the window.  Lance, hell beast that he was, had the audacity to wave.

What had she agreed to?

***

The second attempt at a thirst trap allowed Pidge to keep her dignity.  Or as much dignity as you could have when trying to trick a grown man into posing for an admirer.  At least this time Shiro had clothes on.

“Why do I need to wear my suit now?” he asked.

Shiro might have been as easy going as a family labrador, but even he was starting to show signs of being weary of Matt and Pidge’s odd requests.

“I told you, Mom wants to try having a formal supper this year at Christmas.  You’re still coming home with Matt, right?”

It was a low blow to use her mother, Pidge knew, but desperate times and all that.  Shiro shook his head, but he still tugged the fitted jacket on over the crisp dress shirt.

“I don’t know why I have to try it on,” he grumbled.

Matt didn’t look up from where he was chortling over his phone—Pidge could only imagine what sort of horrifying comments she would have to see in the group chat after this.

“Mom wants to take a family photo while you’re there.  Need to make sure it still fits and all that,” Matt said.

It was a little breathtaking to see how easily her brother lied.  Pidge was never trusting him again.

“Come over here,” she said to Shiro.

“What?”

“Over by the window.”

“Can’t I just go get changed now?  I have a lot of grading to do.”

Trying her best to sound like she knew  _ anything _ about suits, Pidge said, “We just need to see it in some natural light.”

“But it’ll be dark when supper—“

“Shhhh,” Pidge said, cutting him off. “Just two seconds so we can make sure that it…that it fits okay. It’s for the picture.”

When a confused Shiro was allowed to slink back to his room, Pidge finally checked the message thread.

**I think there may have been drool.**

**_But still no sign that he’s going to try to talk to Shiro._ **

It might be time to see if we can get Shiro to take action. Are things ready on your end? Matt typed.

**We’ve got this covered.  Just make sure your boy is looking when we give the signal.**

Pidge did not feel encouraged by Lance’s text.

***

Horrified fascination. That was the only reason Pidge’s stunned brain could produce for why she still hadn’t looked away.  Trapped in a loop, staring through that cursed window into Hunk and Lance’s living room, she watched as Keith sucked on a popsicle.

Not just any popsicle.  A gigantic popsicle. A popsicle that looked more like a dick than any popsicle had the right to.

Either Hunk or Lance must have been in the kitchen talking to him, so Keith was turned to the side, his face in profile as he worked the frozen treat over with his tongue.  Occasionally he would suck the whole thing back, his lips dragging slowly as he pulled it out.

What had those idiots been thinking?  They were supposed to have just gotten Keith to take his shirt off or something, not staged the literal food porn that she she was being forced to watch.

She didn’t know if she felt more awkward about Shiro or Matt standing beside her.  Like most of this whole shitty endeavour, Pidge solemnly swore to herself as her face went up into flames, this moment was something to be deeply repressed.  And drowned in alcohol.

Alcohol! Why hadn’t she thought of that yet?

“I’m going to go get a beer, you guys want anything?” she said, though she still didn’t move.

She just couldn’t look away.  Keith’s tongue was currently circling the base of the popsicle to catch the drips, before he licked a stripe up to the tip.

An odd, strangled noise was the only response to her question.

_ It better not be from Matt _ , she thought furiously.  Though the idea of either of the guys standing there with boners was enough for her to understand why it was a good and true thing that bleach existed in the world.

“Is this why you guys play  _ Rear Window? _ ” Shiro finally said, his voice sounding thick and raspy.

“Gross, no,” Pidge said

At the same moment Matt said, “Pretty much.”

Stomping past them to the fridge, Pidge slammed an elbow into her brother’s ribs.  He huffed at the blow, but still didn’t look away.

“So, uh, what was it you two wanted me to look at?”

“Oh, Pidge was wondering if it looked like it was going to rain,” Matt said.

That actually had Shiro turning to look at her, his head tilted and brows lowered.

“Don’t you have an app for that?”

Pidge nodded shamefacedly, before she reached into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer.  Before she’d even had a chance to take a sip, it was snatched from her fingers.

“You’re still underage,” Shiro said with a frown.

Then, with a last look at the window where Keith was licking the remains of the popsicle off his fingers, Shiro walked back towards his room.  He closed the door behind him with a firm click. Music started to pour through the thin door.

Staring after him, Pidge wondered what had just happened and then she remembered Lance’s text.  New horror dawning, she turned to Matt. He just smiled wolfishly.

“That doesn’t mean—Shiro wouldn’t…” Pidge stuttered.

Matt smiled, and patted her head.

“You might want to head home now.  Music only covers up so much.”

***

“I think we need to consider this mission a failure,” Pidge said to the group seated around the small table.

Two weeks of trying to run Operation Hydration and they were no closer to either Keith or Shiro making a move. The only thing they had managed to achieve was developing the relationship that Keith and Shiro each had with their own right hands.

“We can’t just give up,” Lance whined.  “We still have lots of stuff planned.”

“Plans? Knowing you two, it’s just going to be Keith eating whatever dick shaped foods you can convince him to put in his mouth.  I’m surprised you didn’t start with trying to get him to deepthroat a banana,” Pidge hissed.

Hunk and Lance shared a guilty look, neither willing to meet Pidge’s gaze.

“No, you guys didn’t?” Matt said on a laugh.

Pidge was glad  _ someone _ seemed to be having a good time with all of this.

“Well,” Hunk wheedled, finally looking up at Pidge. 

He was giving her that stupid puppy dog look asking for her forgiveness or understanding, but this wasn’t like the times he needed notes for lectures he’d missed.  Jaw set and arms crossed over her chest, Pidge refused to give him any quarter.

With a roll of his eyes, his voice making it clear he didn’t think it was any big thing, Lance jumped in.

“We were going to start with a banana.  I mean, pretty classic, right? But after we did a few test runs, we decided that it just wouldn’t last long enough.  And it’s a little wilting to see someone biting off chunks.”

“After you what?” Pidge yelled.

“Test runs?” Matt said.  His shoulders had started to shake, and Pidge thought that there might be tears in his eyes.

“We’re committed to this!” Lance bristled.  His eyes were intense as he leaned over the table, pointing a finger between Pidge and Matt.  “We weren’t just going to have Keith do any old thing.”

“So you guys just…just sat around in your apartment watching each other eat bananas, trying to see if it was hot enough?” Matt pressed.

Hunk shrugged.  “We’ve done weirder.  And it was actually a few things.  We might have got a little carried away when we were at the grocery store.  It looks a little like a bachelorette party did our shopping.”

Trying to push the image of Hunk and Lance watching each other eat dick-shaped food out of her mind, Pidge buried her face in her hands.

“Can we get back on topic?” She pleaded.  “We’ve been trying for two weeks now. I think that we can safely assume that nothing is going to happen.”

Allura’s cool voice sounded from the other table, and Pidge looked over to see the barista frowning at them.

“You four are still doing that?  You should have just introduced them and let them talk.”

Instantly Lance had forgotten the others and was staring sappy-eyed at Allura.

“Is that what you’re into?” He said.

Allura narrowed her blue eyes, tossing her mane of platinum hair over her shoulder—Pidge had happily shorn her hair down to a pageboy sometime around middle school, but she still got crazy hair envy every time she saw Allura.

“Am I into being treated like I’m a human being, and not some princess to be claimed as a trophy? Yes,” she snapped.

Then, with a regal air that shouldn’t have been possible while wearing an apron and laden with dishes, Allura stalked off.

“I’m going to marry her,” Lance sighed.

“I think you’re going to get a restraining order,” Pidge said.

She took a sip of her coffee, which had long since cooled.

“Can we all just agree? Operation Hydration is officially closed.  We tried. We failed. I have been traumatized beyond repair. Let’s all just move on.”

The other three didn’t look happy, but they did nod in agreement.

“Alright, gentlemen.  It’s been…something…”

Hooking her bag over her shoulder, Pidge hustled out.  She had class in an hour, and because of their lies Pidge now had to find a dress for Christmas dinner and the family photos.  Truly, nothing good had come out of this whole nightmare.

***

Pidge was officially done with this whole bullshit day.

No.  She was actually done with this whole term.  Today alone, after the Operation Hydration meeting, she’d had to go into three different stores to find a dress.  Three! Just to find something that didn’t drown her short frame or make her look like a pageant child—the creepy kind.  Even with all her hunting she still didn’t find anything great, just good enough. 

These Christmas pictures, she figured, would haunt her for years.  And for what? If it had all ended with knowing that Shiro was happy, then Pidge could have handled the inevitable teasing that she could feel lurking like storm clouds…

Shiro was the older brother Pidge often wished she had.  She  _ loved _ Matt, as much as he could get on her nerves—she knew that he would always be there if she needed help, and there were so many things they had in common—but he could also be an asshole.  And moody. And he was just like her in ways that forced Pidge to realize that maybe  _ she _ could be obnoxious as well.  But Shiro was patience and gentle strength.  She always knew where she stood with him, and he believed in her.

When Pidge had first started to discover the endless beauty of space, and the way the possibilities of it opened up parts of her mind, it was Shiro, visiting the Holts with Matt over Spring Break, who had told her about the Deep Space Network.  And when Pidge had come to GU to tour the campus, it was Shiro who had taken her to the planetarium and helped her connect with people in the Astro-physics department.

He was a brotherly figure without all the baggage that came with actually growing up with someone, and she had just wanted to find some way of making him happy.

Instead she had probably just creeped him out.

Maybe she should just get him a puppy.

Daylight was fading fast and she hurried across the parking lot. Matt’s apartment was close enough to campus that she always just used the guest parking near the Rec Centre when she had class, but with a chill wind rising Pidge wished she had gone with the heated parkade at the college.

Fingers numb, Pidge fumbled with her keys as she pulled them out of her bag.  There was a sharp clink of metal on concrete as they hit the ground.

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered, crouching down to grab them.

Dress shopping, a surprise Latin quiz, and a cold snap.  Pidge just needed to go home to bed and wake up when her luck had turned.

Keys in hand, half squatting beside her car, Pidge glanced up and froze.

Pidge could only describe the flood of panic and hope like what happened when you dropped a Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke. Pure chaos overflowing and overwriting every other thought.

Leaving the Rec Centre, his gym bag thrown over one shoulder and holding the door open after him, was Shiro.  And following behind him was none other than Keith.

Pidge heard the soft murmur of words, too low for her to actually be able to make out what was being said, but Shiro beamed in response.

_ Had their plan worked? _

Was it possible that after all of their scheming, they had finally managed to get the two oblivious idiots together?

Keith reached one hand out towards Shiro, and a phone was quickly placed into his palm.  Glancing up through his bangs with a smile that could only be described as shy, Keith typed something before handing back the phone.

Gone was the surly boy that Pidge had met at Hunk’s place; instead she saw Keith  _ blush _ when Shiro murmured something to him.

_ I should not be watching this _ , Pidge realized.  For all of the creeping everyone had been doing over the last few weeks, watching this first moment felt a step too far.

Trying to be a quiet as she could, Pidge unlocked her car door and slipped into the driver’s seat before pulling out of the spot.

As she turned the car towards the exit, she caught one final glimpse of them in her rear view mirror.  Shiro had one hand resting on Keith’s shoulder, and Keith was leaning into the touch.

Pidge couldn’t wait to get home and text the group chat to let them know she had been right all along.

***

It had been a weird month for Shiro.

And not even weird in the way Matt’s antics usually went. Those typically involved things like going out at eleven pm to get a piercing, or convincing Shiro that what they really needed was a ‘bro’s roadtrip’.  The watchful looks and obvious lies had been a whole other matter.

It was all too familiar—like when he'd first got out of the hospital and everyone kept watching him, waiting for him to crack. Then, the  _ only _ people who hadn't treated him like he was broken and irreparable were the Holts.  Shiro wished he knew what had happened—what he had done—for Matt and Pidge to start treating him so differently now.

Combined with the inevitable end of term work,both for his own program and for his position as a TA,Shiro felt like he was one breath away from his world collapsing.

The only way he knew to hold off the anxiety was to work out.  If he could get himself to the point of exhaustion, he might actually sleep that night.  And so, despite having gone to the gym at his regular time first thing that morning, Shiro had grabbed his gym bag and run over to the rec centre after work.

Letting himself in, Shiro paused to check out the sign-in log.  There were no names written down for that day since Shiro had signed in at five am, but he could see a pair of boots tucked into one of the cubbies and he could hear the sound of the treadmill.

Having to make a concerted effort to relax his jaw and let the flash of irritation slide past, Shiro headed into the changing room. Still, he couldn’t quite let it go.  It  _ bothered  _ him when people didn’t follow the rules.  Who were they to decide what did and did not apply to them?

He stripped off his clothes, folding them up neatly and stowing them in his bag before pulling on sweats and a tank top.  Normally Shiro liked to work out in a loose t-shirt, but someone had gone through his bag and replaced his top. His accident had left a lot of scarring, and while he wasn’t ashamed of it, he did get tired of the looks. That, and the way people thought visible scars meant they could ask questions.  But he was here, and maybe he and this other person could just quietly ignore each other.

A conversation with Matt would definitely be in order, he decided.

Taking the two steps down to the entrance, the hum and grind of the treadmill grew even louder, and Shiro could see the back end of the belt through the doorway.  Irritation surged through him. He’d wanted to be  _ alone. _

Straightening his shoulders and pulling his chin up, Shiro walked in but what he saw pulled him up short.

Running on the treadmill was a man, all sleek lines and lean muscle.  His dark hair was pulled back into a stubby ponytail, and at the sound of Shiro’s entrance, he glanced over his shoulder enough that Shiro could tell his features were all sharp angles.

_ It was the mechanic.  _ The coveralls might have been swapped for gym clothes, and gone were the grease spots, but it was definitely him.

Shiro had taken his car in more times than was reasonable just so he could catch a glimpse of the mechanic, and each visit, he had sworn to himself that next time he would say something.  But all he had ever done was sit there in the waiting room, trying to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous man with violet eyes through the plate glass observation window while choking on whatever words his brain could still produce.

Eventually, Shiro had given it up for the lost cause it was.  Clearly he was never going to be able to say anything, and he couldn’t afford to keep taking his car in for made up problems.

But here the man was.

And the day before, he had been in the apartment almost directly across the alley.  Shiro had thought his heart might stop when he had seen the familiar face through the window.  Already he could feel a flush rising up, his cheeks going hot at the memory of the mechanic sucking on that popsicle.

Shiro shifted uncomfortably as he felt his cock stirring.  God, he had spent a whole hour alone fantasizing about those lips after that—cool and slightly swollen, tasting of the remnants of the sticky treat.  He’d tried to put on music to push back the thoughts—Shiro could hardly give into the urge to wrap his fist around his aching length and imagine that it was those gorgeous lips wrapped around him when Matt’s baby sister was just outside the door—but even the loud rock was no competition for his fantasies and so he had slipped into the bathroom.  In the wet heat of the shower, Shiro had given himself over to those thoughts.

_ Be cool.  Be cool. Be cool. _

The mantra did little to help the feeling of his chest collapsing in on itself.

He stepped up onto the second treadmill, trying to ignore the fact that this was the closest he had ever been to his crush.  From here he could see the beads of perspiration that were tracing the curve of the man’s neck, could smell a mix of sweat and woodsy deodorant.

Keeping his gaze focussed down, Shiro chose a program at random and started to walk.  When he was finally able to look at the display and  _ see _ it, Shiro realized that he had selected the hill walking program. Great.

When he finally looked up, Shiro caught a glimpse of violet and realized that the mechanic was looking at him.

“Hey,” Shiro said between pants.

“Hi.”  The greeting was accompanied by the faintest suggestion of a smile.

Screwing up his courage Shiro managed, “I’m Shiro. Takashi Shirogane. But everyone just calls me Shiro.”

“Keith.”

***

Keith wasn’t sure how he managed to keep breathing, let alone keep his breaths steady and even.  From the moment he had seen his crush walk into the equipment room of the rec centre, he had felt like a forest during fire season, waiting for that one spark to set him off.

It had been difficult enough when all he could see of the other man was through a window, particularly with the odd activity that had started over the past couple weeks.  Between the pull-up bar and the suits, not to mention that magical day Keith had seen the man walk past the window in a towel, Keith wasn’t sure how he managed to think of anything else.

At least his roommates were big enough idiots that they never seemed to notice where his attention was directed, and with the angry punk he would pump out through his stereo they would never hear how many times he made himself cum when he was alone in his room.

When the man had started up the treadmill, the machine increasing its incline, Keith had felt his mouth go dry.  Even through the sweats he could see the way the man’s thighs were straining at the fabric, and his ass…Keith could write poetry about that ass.

Glancing up, the man had caught Keith staring.  It was only years of practice staring down principles and social workers, of sitting through that meeting when Dean Iverson had kicked him out of GU for fighting—never mind that he had punched a piece of shit frat boy that had tried to roofie a freshman—that allowed Keith to keep a blank face.

“Hey,” the man said.  There was something so open about his expression, it filled Keith with longing.

“Hi,” he said.

Instantly he wondered if that was too terse a response.  He was forever putting people off with what his boss described as a “real shitty attitude”, but Keith had discovered early that if he didn’t put too much effort into relationships, didn’t build up expectations, he couldn’t get hurt.

“I’m Shiro. Takashi Shirogane. But everyone just calls me Shiro.”

“Keith.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Shiro said, and Keith had the oddest feeling that Shiro actually meant it.

The two settled into their workouts, with Keith continuing to sneak occasional glimpses at Shiro.  How could he not? The view through the window hadn’t done the man justice.

Shiro was beautiful in the way of Greek heroes.  In any other time, odes would have been written the majesty of his thighs and the curve of his jaw.  It had been ages since Keith had even pulled out his notebook, but he felt a pressing need to start writing.

When his treadmill beeped, slowing the pace down and putting him into cool down, Keith actually sighed with disappointment.

How likely was it that he would run into Shiro again?  Keith had been using the Rec Centre almost every day since he had moved into the building six months before, and this was the first time he had ever seen Shiro here.

It hurt a little for him to think that it might be another six months before he got to talk to him again.

All too soon, his cool down ended, and Keith stepped off the machine.  He took his time with wiping it down, but eventually he had to just walk away.

Outside of the equipment room he sat down on the low bench and pulled on his boots.  As he was pulling on the second, he heard the soft sound of footsteps on the worn carpet.

Shiro grabbed his own shoes and joined Keith on the bench.

“So…I haven’t seen you around here before? Do you use the Rec Centre often?” Shiro said, before flushing.  “God, that sounds terrible. Like a pick-up line out of a movie or something.”

Keith laughed, though he kind of wished it  _ had _ been a pick-up line.

“Yeah, I always come after work.  I’m a mechanic at the shop over on Castle and 5th.”

Shiro’s blush actually got even darker, but he just said, “Cool.  I’ll see you around then.”

The two walked to the door, Shiro stepping outside into the quiet dusk first, holding the door after him.

Keith took a deep breath of the cool air before he committed to the most terrifying thing he could think of.

“Would you be…if you were…Do you want to go get coffee sometime?  My roommates are always going to this place near here and I keep thinking I have to check out what’s so great about it,” Keith said.

Shiro smiled at him, and Keith thought that he could melt into that smile.   Hand shaking, he reached out towards Shiro.

“I can put my number into your phone,” Keith said.

A second later, Shiro’s phone was in his palm and Keith was adding his name and number to contacts.

“If you don’t have anywhere to be…would now work?”

Keith hadn’t blushed in years, but that simple offer had his face warm like he was a thirteen year old in a sex-ed class.

He nodded, sure that any coolness he might have held had evaporated with his zero chill response.  And when Shiro reached forward to press his hand against Keith’s shoulder, he felt like an electric current had passed through his heart.

Maybe Keith was being a fool, but for the first time ever he thought that he might be okay with that.  And as they walked across the parking lot, Shiro looking over at him with another one of those smiles, Keith felt a rightness in the universe that he had never experienced before.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading/commenting/leaving kudos :)
> 
> I have some plans for a few different sheith projects in the near(ish) future. I'll be posting updates on my Tumblr--you can find me on Tumblr and Twitter at thewesterndoor


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